Daring to Live
by snowwhitefire
Summary: After the final encounter with Voldemort, Harry finds he has little reason to live. But all to soon Harry finds himself in a new world, and finds himself getting a new chance at life.


Disclaimer- I don't own HP. That is JK Rowling. Anyway, on to the story…

"Life is no life to him that dares not die,

And death no death to him that dares not live."

When Harry had killed Voldemort he thought it would all be over. As he now stood with his wand in his hand, Harry supposed it was because he had never thought he would survive.

Now he had a future. But how could he have a future? His whole life had revolved around this one event and it was over. It was all over.

There were no sounds. There was no one left to speak. Everyone Harry had ever known was dead. Harry heard an insane chuckle pass his lips.

Perhaps he was dead to. He sardonically wondered if this was his heaven. Well his whole life he was fated to cause death. Perhaps it was only now that he fully accepted his destiny. He was death.

Harry thought back to the years he had spent training. Countless hours and countless pain, learning magic that no human should be able to learn. He thought back to the time when Dumbledore first told him about the extent of his magical core. How he had limitless potential.

Well, he had certainly lived up to his potential. Harry surveyed the battlefield with hooded eyes. It was all he could do. If he thought about the maimed bodies of Hermione, Hagrid, Bill, Fred… It would kill him.

Kill him. Maybe that wouldn't be so hard to do. Harry looked down at himself, at his bleeding side. He was dying. The thought made his head spin. Maybe this was it.

Hogwarts was a ruin now. A ruin where no one would ever step again. Early on Voldemort had set up wards that fed on the magic of the castle to keep people out. So it was as aurors attempted to join the battle that they actually destroyed the castle themselves.

No one could enter. But no one could leave either. None of his friends would ever get the recognition they deserved. There would be no funeral.

Harry fell to one knee. How could he have lost so much blood and still be alive?

Harry heard a sound from in front of him. It was nothing much, but it indicated life. To Harry it sounded like the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. He started crawling forward towards the sound, ignoring the trail of blood he was leaving. But the sound stopped.

Harry called out, yelled out, "Where are you? WHO IS THERE? I CAN HELP?" His voice broke, "I am so tired. Just let me help. Then I can sleep."

Harry reached out his magic, looking for life. But he found none. It was then Harry fell down on his back. He lay among the corpses, looking as though he was one of them.

Finding a renewed source of energy, Harry sat up. He formed a small ball of fire in his hand, and slowly made it into a thin ring. He expanded the ring until it surrounded him, surrounded all the bodies. Until it reached the edge of the wards.

Then Harry let the fire find purchase on the ground until it blazed up. It slowly began to come towards him, burning body after body.

Truly content for the first time in what seemed like forever, Harry lay back down and stared up at the sky. For the first time in what seemed like forever Harry watched the clouds. And he wondered. Filled with hope, Harry thought about his family. About his parents, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Mom, Dad. Would he be joining them soon?

In the moments before Harry lost consciousness to the blazing heat he was, for the first time, truly content, surrounded by family, if only in his mind.

* * *

When Harry opened his eyes he was surrounded by whiteness. He supposed it was a far cry from what he had been expecting of Heaven, but hey! He would take it would bring him peace. That was what Heaven was supposed to do, yeah?

Harry sat down. He waited for a short period of time before realizing he was bored. Horribly bored. As in, willing to do anything to get rid of the boredom, bored. Heaven wasn't supposed to cause insanity was it?

That was it. He was not sitting still any longer. He got up, chose a random direction and started walking. It was not long before Harry noticed that he was walking through a mist of some sort. And there was something coming towards him.

Harry stopped in his tracks with what he saw. It was a woman, the most stunningly beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had strait jet-black hair that fell down to her waist, with no ornament of any kind. She had ice blue eyes that were staring directly at Harry, and the palest complexion he had ever seen, accompanied by pale lips. She was wearing a pure black gown that seemed out of place in the white mist and vast nothingness.

When her voice began to speak, Harry suddenly felt an unnatural calm, which he attributed to finally being in Heaven. "Young one, you are not in Heaven, not yet."

Finding his voice, Harry asked, "Then where am I?"

"You are at a place, never before seen by a mortal. You are in a realm of minor gods, where I, Ariel, reign."

Harry couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "Why am I here?"

She chuckled, an ethereal sound, "I have forgotten the bluntness of humans. I have been watching you, young Harry. I have seen you face none which one so young should face. I have seen you harden. I want to break those walls down once more."

Harry couldn't help himself. He felt a tear fall. Once he had done that, he could no longer contain himself. And he, the Gryffindor filled with so much courage, stood and allowed the tears to silently fall down his face, one after another.

"Why do you cry, young one?"

Harry controlled himself. "What else am I to do?"

"Go. Live. I will give you back a life, the life, which you should have lived. And you will flourish."

"Why can I not just go to Heaven?"

"The one you love does not exist in your dimension, and thus your Heaven. If you wish it, you could find true happiness. And when your time comes, and it will come, you will breach your two heavens and find happiness surrounded by all who you will ever truly love."

"Why are you doing this for me?"

"Because you are special. Because you have endured, what by all rights you never should have experienced. So go. In this dimension you will never have been attacked as a baby. Rather, Voldemort ignored the prophecy, and thus invalidated it. There will therefore be another Harry there, one who is very different from you. However, this also means that Voldemort has had more time to gather power and followers. But as in the other dimension, you are powerful. As a gift to you, and to ease your journey I will merge you with your core. This will allow you to tap the full extent of your power, as well as gaining more control of the powers you have now. Now go."

As the whiteness began to fade before Harry's eyes, he could have sworn he heard, "I will be sending someone to watch you. Any good luck Harry. You will need it."


End file.
